Before the Bluebell Railway
can achieve its aim of reattaching itself to the main line at East
Grinstead they have to remove the rubbish that was used to fill in a
300 metre cutting more than 30 years ago. If they don't complete the
job by April 2012 they will probably never get there as a tax
concession will expire and the cost will skyrocket from the present
£2 Million or so to perhaps £10 Million or even more! If you can
help please do consider making a donation. Details at
www.bluebell-railway.co.uk
In the mean time I hope to publish pictures of the work as it
progresses on this page. Please bookmark and look back frequently.

February/March 2011

IMPORTANT I intend to keep the
captions here the same as they were when first uploaded to this web
site. Some captions have been overtaken by later events or
developments but were honestly written with the information at the
time. To alter them might be seen as "altering history".

This page records my pictures of the Bluebell Railway's attempt
to reconnect the 9 mile long existing line with the main railway at
East Grinstead in Sussex. If you are not familiar with the Bluebell
area then it's a little complicated so here is my (very simplified)
explanation. When the Bluebell decided to try to reconnect it was
faced with a virtually clear but heavily overgrown track from its
existing terminus at Kingscote to the main line at East Grinstead -
just two miles away. The problem was that more than 30 years ago as a
young man I watched as one cutting was filled up with 100 thousand
tonnes of domestic waste. This was accomplished by waste wagons
backing up to the edge of the old cutting and then simply opening up
the back and dropping their waste over the side. Other waste arrived by
road and was very basically sorted then pushed over the edge by a sort
of pump device. I am aware that some
people give other descriptions of the way it was done but I was there
and together with my late father we watched the work being done! They
did not even bother to remove the ballast from the old track - indeed
some old sleepers were left behind and buried under the first tippings.

After much provocation and delay after a trial
by road, the Bluebell
decided to remove this waste by rail which meant that they first had
to build a line south from the main line railway at East Grinstead to
the tip face. Next they transported trains of wagons to the tip
face, filled them with a digger and transport it all away to another
dump - this work continues. So there are really at present two Bluebell Railways - one is
the original track running to the south of the blockage and a second
line over half a mile long running south from East Grinstead to the
north of the tip located near Imberhorne Farm. The Bluebell passenger
station at East Grinstead was rebuilt and opened last year - this has
confused some people as it was not really made clear that the new
station did not serve any others! We hope the two lines will be
rejoined soon with a new golden spike as used by the early American
railway pioneers. This page records work removing the waste by rail.
To see the pictures in more detail just click the small view below.

Warning! Keep out of the cutting. There
is a footpath on a bridge that crosses the line. Best use that to see
what is going on. At present the footpath is extremely muddy and
Wellington boots are to be recommended. There is NO PARKING anywhere
near the work so if you have not made arrangements with a local
resident as I have then you will have to walk. Please do not park on the
nearby private ground or block entrances. The local residents have
enough to put up with so let's give them some space. OK.

Obviously
when the work progresses it will eventually be visible from the next
road bridge that crosses the line 300 metres further on.

The line now extends under the recently
repaired bridge. You can almost see to the other end of the tip, it's
behind the blue pile of earth and tyres almost 300 metres away in the
far distance. To the left of the trees just above the wiggly orange
fence.

From the picture above we have extracted
the pile of tyres that marks the far end of the tip and shows where
the railway hopes to end up. It is NOT a straight line however, there
is unfortunately a substantial bend to the right and left which adds
to the amount of waste to be removed. We hope the Bluebell have taken
this into account!

It will be a beautiful ride when the
embankment grasses over
and the trees come into leaf. The
beautifully neatly laid siding in the distance with the eventual running line
nearest the camera

On the 16th February work is in progress
for the next extraction phase.
If you want to look wear wellies - the public footpath is very wet!

This is the end of the line on Feb 16th - next
week, who knows? (see below)

A visit on Sunday 20th February shows
another length of track squeezed in. There is now probably just enough
track to stable a loco and 2 short coaches on the southern side of the
bridge!

But there is still a mighty long way to
go - the next phase of extraction starts tomorrow afternoon. A further
6 foot section of track awaits the newly cleared space.

First day of the next extraction phase
and at the tip everybody is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the
wagons. Incidentally if you want to see how far work far work has
reached then the digger is removing some of the top soil and it is
near (but not touching obviously) the power lines that are visible in
the high definition picture on the previous page. This also gives some
scale to the work. For the avoidance of doubt the power line is
protected by plastic lines that have been set up to prevent machinery
coming into contact. It's all quite safe!

Looking the other side of the bridge more rail sections await fitting, just
like a Hornby 00 railway but minus the fishplates!

With 9 of the wagons deposited in East
Grinstead platform, looking from the other end beside the tip we see
the half rake of 9 wagons reversing slowly onto the new siding but
what else can we see?

There was extra ballast in the wagons
assigned to the first filling so these have to be emptied first before
any proper work can start. The wagons are huge, in fact designed to hold up to 66 Tonnes each. It
would have been helpful if they had been the design that could be
easily emptied of ballast onto the line from the side, but these just had a small door for
sweeping out. These wagons have to be emptied from the top, bring over
the rail mounted crane.

Just one more picture of the wagons to show how really huge they are.
Just think of a full size passenger coach, take off the roof above the windows
and fill with rubbish. I reckon you could get 300 (friendly) people
standing up together in each one!

The loco dept at the railway needs rags
to light and clean the locos. I wonder if they know there is an
unlimited supply at the end of the line?

At the other side of the bridge
everybody is ready and the driver even took an early lunch, but the
wagons are still being emptied. It being
nearly 4 p.m., getting dark and rain falling your correspondent had to
return home. By the way that is NOT one of the rubbish wagons behind
the road-railer, they are just a little bit larger!

.

An extra picture and my explanation of
the loading. The black plastic shown above was laid down so the three
wagons could
be reversed into the newly made space.
These wagons are then filled from the side with the long load digger, the plastic protecting the
ballast from waste falling over the side. It was the same three wagons that were to be filled first
that had to be emptied of ballast. This started quickly as the crane
just lifted each load out but eventually
the rail mounted crane had to travel with each load which explains the
extra delay. At first the onlookers could not understand why things
went as they did, but the reason was that if different wagons were
filled first the crane would have been "trapped" at the far end
of the line nearest the tip. I have been told that the siding is soon
to be turned into a passing loop. This, if true, would make further
extraction work easier.

This is my last picture taken as I left
the site on the first day with still a lot of work to be done before the line was
clear to allow tip detritus removal.

Wednesday 23rd and a new digger is working apparently smoothing out
the pile beside the track.

On arrival on Thursday it was obvious that a good
deal of rubbish had "disappeared" since Wednesday.

Another view before work on Thursday and one thing is becoming
apparent to my untrained eye. that is that on the eastern side the
cutting looks as though it is a virtually vertical rock face.
This will add to stability
but perhaps increase the amount of rubbish to be disposed of? I am
talking of the lighter coloured stuff top left of this picture.
On the right it can be seen there is a more gentle slope.

Here comes the first rake of wagons,
straight into the running line today.

Work quickly commences loading up. This picture can give some scale
to the operation. If you look carefully you can see some red and white
poles which are marked in 1 metre divisions. The pole with the
triangle marks the top of the tip and you can see where the rails
should go. Multiply and work it out - it's a long way!

On Friday of the first week at last some lights
have been installed and are pictured here. Behind you can see the "rock face" alluded to earlier. There
are car tyres in the nooks, and rubbish strewn about but from looking
on the ground it certainly looks solid to me. Any
experts out there?

These tyres have been unearthed in the previous 24
hours. There is a much larger pile at the other end of the tip.

At last my pictures can give a scale to the whole
operation as in the right hand corner are two workers! Small, aren't
they? No, but the tip if huge!

Another view of the shunter waiting to stop the
first rake of wagons from crashing into the wall of rubbish gives more
scale to the operation.

This
picture taken from the public footpath shows work from a skew angle.
The buildings in the distance are part of the Council refuse
department that is to be closed for improvements this summer. If you
look closely you can also see the pole for the electricity wires that
cross what is quickly returning to being a cutting. These lines are
clearly visible on the large overhead picture so again help to
pinpoint the work area. You can see that operations are now well south
of these.

Same view but closer shows a small mountain of
capping removed for excavation. I was not able to get across to the
edge of the path so these two pictures were taken for me with a long
lens. This view - along with many others - will soon be obscured by
vegetation. It might be cold in winter but the season still has its
advantages for photographers!

Now again looking roughly south from the bridge we
can see how far extraction has extended in the past week. I have to
report that despite the amount of rubbish removed no extra rails have
been laid yet.

Another view taken at lunchtime on Monday in a sleet storm. It's hard
to see but the rubbish actually almost goes down to ground level
beyond the wagon. There is a pile perhaps 12 feet tall waiting to be
removed leaving (presumably) room for the installation of a decent
length of new rail. Pictures from this area, as already explained,
make it extremely hard to show the levels.

Looking north on the other side of the bridge, underneath but still
attached to seven empties, the two filled trucks are pulled away...

and deposited into the siding. The train then
returns the empty trucks to have the next rear two quickly filled with
more "muck". After that it's start all over again, and again, and!

Wednesday 2nd March and new plant has arrived. An
extra digger plus what I will call a "snow cat". these machines work
backwards as well as forwards and were used in the last extraction.

Three diggers at work One gets the rubbish, which
passes it to the second, which in turn passes it on to the third. This
digger places it for loading later in the day.

Another view from Wednesday.

Just one more for now. I will sort the site out
later in the week and remove some of the duplicate pictures.,

Finally a rant. When you visit the site you have to
walk down a public footpath. Some people don't bother - they drive
which blocks access and upsets the neighbours.

This
picture taken from the public footpath with a long lens shows work from a skew angle.
The buildings in the distance are part of the Council refuse
department that is to be closed for improvements this summer. If you
look closely you can also see the pole for the electricity wires that
cross what is quickly returning to being a cutting. These lines are
clearly visible on the large overhead picture so again help to
pinpoint the work area. You can see that operations are now well south
of these. The distance between the electricity poles and depth of the
cutting sort of remind me of Horsted Keynes where there are similar
wires high above the steam trains.

The full wagon seen above are deposited into the
siding. The train then returns the empty train to have the next two
empty wagons quickly filled with
more "muck". After that it's start all over again, and again, and!

Three diggers at work now. One gets the rubbish, which
passes it to the second, which in turn passes it on to the third. This
digger places it for loading later in the day.

Work on Thursday seems to be tidying up the work of
the first two weeks and making room for an additional rail section -
possibly for the weekend gang. The present line which has remained
unaltered from the start terminates in the
centre of the picture, so an additional length of perhaps 20' might be
squeezed in to below where the blue digger is now sited? This would be
the real ground "gained" by the present dig.

A little closer showing work removing some of the
capping pile. This small "alcove" that the digger is teetering on is
shown on the Ordinance Survey map and is the grey blob on my map, this shows how accurate the
cartographers were
in those days.

Please see the videos for a much better
impression of the work.

On the right of the bridge is the tip and looking
back on a sunny third Monday we can see the access via a public
footpath.

First day of the next extraction phase
and at the tip everybody is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the
wagons. Incidentally if you want to see how far work had
reached at this stage then the digger is removing some of the top soil and it is
near (but not touching obviously) the power lines that are visible in
the high definition picture on the previous page. This also gives some
scale to the work. For the avoidance of doubt the power line is
protected by plastic lines that have been set up to prevent machinery
coming into contact. It's all quite safe!

With 9 of the wagons deposited in East
Grinstead platform, looking from the other end beside the tip we see
the half rake of 9 wagons reversing slowly onto the new siding. It
seemed to me a pity the end wagons were not transported direct to the
tip face. They could have been filled while other work was going on.
In fact little new waste went back on the first train. It was mostly
stuff removed during the last job, that had been dumped at the track
side.

On arrival on the first Thursday it was obvious that
removal had improved from the first days and a good
deal of rubbish had "disappeared" since Wednesday.

With the trucks where they should be work quickly commences loading up. This picture can give some scale
to the operation. If you look carefully you can see some red and white
poles which are marked in even spaced divisions. The pole with the
triangle marks the top of the tip and you can see where the rails
should go. Multiply and work it out - it's a long way!

Friday of the first week at last some lights have
been installed and are pictured here. Behind you can see the "rock
face" alluded to earlier. There are car tyres in the nooks, and
rubbish strewn about but from looking on the ground it certainly looks
solid to me. The pile of rubbish is part of a temporary loading ramp
that the diggers stand on to make their job easier. The area beside
the lights will quickly turn into a temporary store for reclaimed
metal items.

There are tyres everywhere in the tip, these had been unearthed in the previous 24
hours with a much larger pile lined up beside the Council waste
depot perhaps for eventual carting away. Surely this much rubber is
worth something rather than just dumping?

Another view taken at lunchtime on Monday of week 2 in a sleet storm. It's hard
to see but the rubbish actually almost goes down to ground level
beyond the wagon. There is a pile perhaps 12 feet tall waiting to be
removed by the next train. Pictures from this area, as already explained,
make it extremely hard to show the various levels.

Wednesday 2nd March and new plant has arrived. An
extra digger plus what I will call a "snow cat" but is
apparently really called a tracked transporter. These machines work
backwards as well as forwards by spinning round on a central axis and were used in the last extraction.
Here it is being used to transport a large quantity of old vehicle
tyres. This picture was taken using my "Jimmy Jib" which allows a
higher than normal view, and shows a first glimpse of the top of the
tip.

On Thursday of week 2 looking from the western side
of the tip we can see a huge pile of
tyres that have been separated from the other waste. These are near
the domestic waste plant so are easily accessible by road. Not
unconnected perhaps?

The area in the foreground is to be used as part of
a temporary waste plant during renovations to the larger waste site.
It will be a hive of activity every weekend in the summer and is not
recommended as a vantage point!

Incidentally this is the very place where the waste
was initially sorted before being dumped over the side into the then
disused cutting. Later on I witnessed the dust carts reversing here
and simply emptying their loads straight over the edge. The waste was
unsorted at this point. There is a waste vehicle abandoned immediately
below this point. The rumour is that it became stuck in the rubbish,
but from the angle that it lies we think that the driver simply forgot
to apply his brakes when off loading. Picture snapped from moving
vehicle.

Continuing on from the picture above travelling
south and for a change the "other" southern end of the tip
which as you can see is bleak and untouched by human hand - yet! The
cutting starts behind the three trees in the medium distance. In fact
these form the line of the edge of what will be a steep cliff. The other
side of the cutting is where the fir trees are. Below and between
these is up to 25
or so metres of rubbish and capping material in 10 Metre deep cutting running
from left to right. On the vary far right is
the start of the pile of capping that marks the southern end of the
tip, just after that is Bluebell railway line and a recently re-exposed
road bridge. The diggers are out of sight about 100 metres or a bit
more to
our left. The above tyre pile is to the immediate left of this
picture. Picture snapped from moving vehicle.

First view on reaching the tip at the end of week 2 men are at work
installing an extra length of rail. At the end of the weekend there
should be about 70 sleepers length from the south end of the bridge to
the end of the rail. That's about 140'.

From the other side, to give an idea of progress
compare with the other shots from this position.

Just one more view from Saturday, but this shows that a lot of
the capping has been removed. This shows the real height of the tip
proper.

Looking along the top of the bridge parapet shows
that the top of the tip roughly lines up with the top of the bridge.
The bridge is 45' high so too must be the tip!

With the removal of more capping it is now possible to see right through to the tyre
pile which is adjacent to the council depot.

The workmen take a tea break before returning to
their labours at the half way point of this extraction phase.

On the penultimate Monday of the month long dig we
start by looking the other way for a change. These trucks are in the
siding awaiting their load, notice how clean they come back.

Looking south we can see a rake of three wagons in
the process of being filled. As it's a Monday the wagons arrive early so just one digger
working at this time.

Looking along the tucks and the curve of the
cutting is becoming increasingly obvious. This is actually far more
obvious from a live sighting than from this photograph. The line will
eventually curve back to form a flattened 'S' bend when finished.

The middle of the third week and another load goes off for ever! You never know what the
rubbish will contain. Today I saw several reels of 1/4 inch tape being
pulled apart. Just think they might have been lost recordings of The
Goons or 2LO or Radio London or...... ?

After each wagon is filled the driver
spends even more of his time than filling carefully sorting and
levelling the load before it goes off to be weighed. He makes sure
that there is nothing hanging over the edges and is as dexterous with
his machine as many would be with their hands.

Taken into the sun but here is another view of
work. The loading ramp is replaced and realigned as the diggers move
up and down. I expect it will stay there in one form or another until
the work is completed. Please note, the slope that you see is
temporally down to another level - not to the ground. The drivers make
and move the rubbish about all over the place as temporary roadways.
The work would be totally impossible without wide tracked vehicles.

It looks to me as though the line behind the blue
digger, with the pile of topping on top, will form the end of the
present phase of work. This face is represented by the red line on the
overhead photo on my index page, the position of which is very
approximate as I could only see from one side. The capping on the very
top could quite easily be spread down over the end to reseal the tip.
There were just 9 more trains to go in this phase.

IF work were to stop here - and I agree there are
lots of "if's" - it would represent a running line end being about 200
feet from the south face of Hill Place bridge, A total "gain" of about
120 feet.

All my figures are speculative and will be
replaced with the exact figures when these are released by the
railway.

An attempt to show the only side of the tip so far
un-photographed, and a view (if
you can call it that) from the Turners Hill Road showing the pile of
capping at the Southern end of the cutting. When the trees come into
leaf this scene will of course be completely obscured.

Sun streaming into the camera but we can still see
four machines at work, three diggers and a "snow cat" tracked vehicle.
this is busy transporting capping materials right down the site and
are being piled at the sides of the cutting.

My usual view from the western side showing work in
progress just before the train arrived on Wednesday.

Friday morning of the third week of this block of
trains, so
just 5 more to go before a break.

Usual view from the western side of the public
footpath crossing Hill Place Bridge to show progress. Friday, week 3.

One more general view showing more of the same
thing from a slightly different angle.

Whilst moving from place to place this digger found itself at a jaunty angle but soon
made a new roadway and drove quietly away! I am amazed at their low
centre of gravity. The diggers move around the site making a temporary
roadway as they go, often digging it up again immediately after they
have passed!

I'm pleased to see that metal is now being
sorted out presumably for reclamation. There will be a lot more of
this sort to come when the tip proper is
reached as people were allowed to throw anything into the pit. Many people -
including me - would think that it would rust away after all this
time, but school science
lessons tell us that to rust iron needs oxygen, and there is limited
oxygen 6 metres or more down! Another thing unearthed are several
telegraph pole size pieces of wood, these have turned coal black -
interesting! \could they power a loco?

The metal things with holes on the
front are NOT washing machines - they did not look like that 40 years
ago, these are in fact old riveted water tanks.

From
personal experience watching the original interment when people were
allowed to throw anything they liked over the edge I know there are
other odd and old bits and pieces buried there.

It's
rather like now when rubbish is dumped into those huge skips and
carted away, it was just left here so along with garden waste is the
odd diamond ring!

Another piece of metal joins the reclamation dump.
This is corrugated iron roofing which of course normally rusts away
very quickly. Another sign that the lack of oxygen has caused less
deterioration than might be expected. If it had been left on a roof it
would have completely disintegrated by now.

It is
interesting to see that after just a few days in the air much of the
reclaimed metal has changed colour to rust red.

Monday of the last week of work shows three wagons
virtually filled already and it's not yet noon. The wagons return over
the weekend so work can start earlier than otherwise.

Another view from the centre of Hill Place Bridge,
late
morning on Monday.

As you can see almost 4 trucks now fit into the
space to the south of the bridge. I could not photograph it but it's
about 3 and 3/4 trucks to be exact.

Isn't it always the same, you settle down to some
work on the wagon weighbridge and a great big diesel comes tooting
round the corner..

... fortunately into the adjacent siding!

After shunting operations the diesel hauls away three filled wagons...

And drops these into the work face where the diggers
hurry to fill them up while the loco waits to pull it all away.

Wednesday and the penultimate day of this phase of extraction, we
can see here how work has progressed. The slope under the far digger
will almost certainly be the new end of the tip, well for several
months at least.

The new arrival, a Volvo digger at work preparing
for the arrival of the train on the last Wednesday.

Looking lost in a sea of rubbish a fourth digger
joined the work on Wednesday. This is as you see a Volvo of medium reach.

Second of the four diggers working on the job, this is the long reach
that has been so useful..

Next we have this natty blue model.

Followed closely by another yellow!

There is also the very clever tracked digger which
I call a "snow cat" - I don't think anyone else does though! Sorry
it's not my sharpest ever photo but I had to snap it from a long
distance.

It's much easier to show the operation in moving
pictures so I am uploading videos to YouTube. The links are below.
Sorry they are only short and 4:3 but show what is needed
nevertheless. Yes they are all similar, but I don't know of any other
easy way to show the progress of the work.